U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) is reintroducing the Financial Freedom Act, which he says will keep the government out of Americans’ investment decisions.
“The Biden administration can’t keep its hands off of Americans’ finances,” said Tuberville in a statement. “Meddling in 401(k) investments through overregulation restrains financial growth and restricts personal liberty. The federal government shouldn’t choose winners and losers in the investment game. Bureaucrats have no business telling hardworking Americans how to manage their savings accounts. My bill ensures that everyone who earns a paycheck has the financial freedom to invest in their futures however they see fit.”
On Tuesday, Tuberville discussed the bill further on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
Bureaucrats have no business telling hardworking Americans how to manage their savings accounts. My bill ensures that everyone who earns a paycheck has the financial freedom to invest in their futures however they see fit. pic.twitter.com/2YExA202zA
— Coach Tommy Tuberville (@SenTuberville) February 15, 2023
“First of all, every American should have the right to invest retirement money how they see fit,” said Tuberville. “But last March, President Biden and Department of Labor got involved in this. And for years, every American had the opportunity to go through what we call the brokerage window in their 401(k)s. The Department of Labor said, you know, we need to get involved in this. We don’t like the looks of cryptocurrency, and we want to make sure that we limit whatever we can through these 401(k)s, through these brokerage windows, and so they did that. We thought it was a huge overreach.”
The senator also noted why it is important to again put forward this bill now.
“So, we put in the Financial Freedom Act we introduced it, basically saying, ‘you can’t do this.’ You have to let the American people invest in what they want to because it might not be just crypto,” he argued. “Right now we’re talking about crypto. In the future could be gas and oil stocks, mineral stocks, wind and solar water, anything like that. So, it’s just an overreach by big government is all it is. And we want the American people to have the latitude to do whatever they want with their money through investing in a 401(k). They’ve worked for that money all their lives.”
Tuberville believes there are already enough regulations in this area.
“[T]here are limits that do already exist about assets that we don’t allow people to invest in regularly. So, it’s not the only thing that’s out there. And I would say if Congress would actually get its act together and regulate the industry, you might feel better about having people going in, at least knowing the rules of the road.”
“This Financial Freedom Act, though, that one brokerage window is one area that the investor can say, ‘Listen, I think that this is going to be good, I’ve earned this money. And I think this company or this,’ whatever they get invested in — crypto — is going to do well and they want to invest a small part of their money. It’s not all their money, just a small window in terms of their investment.”
The lawmaker said if there’s one area of the financial markets where more regulations are needed, it’s with cryptocurrency.
“You know, unfortunately, Washington, D.C., Capitol Hill has let crypto down. We did not regulate it. We ran FTX to the Bahamas because there was no regulation. If we would have kept them in the United States, we would have known what was going on with FTX. We have two bills, bipartisan bills in the Senate as we speak and probably will be reintroduced in this Congress to regulate crypto. It will survive in some form or fashion. Digital assets will survive. But you know, the overall scheme of things, what we want to try to do is make sure the federal government doesn’t step into everything that they’re not supposed to step in.”
He also worries about the negative foreign influences when it comes to the cryptocurrency exchanges.
“What worries me is these exchanges, you know, the few regulations they have overseas, and not in the United States, are really a gamble,” he said. “If we can get regulations, get them back to the United States, control them. The one thing that worries me also is China buying the exchanges that we have, whether out of the country or whether in the United States. We have to address that, too. We have to make sure that we control our currency, our digital currency, everything that goes around it.”
Tuberville said he was optimistic that his financial freedom bill will pass.
“We’ve got very good support,” he explained. “It just never made it to the floor last year. The Democrats had so many things going on that it just there wasn’t enough time in the day to get this on the floor. I think this year we’ve got a good chance…I think we’ve got a good opportunity. But at the end of the day, it’s the right thing. Let’s not mess around with the money. People have worked so hard to gain and then have an opportunity to build on that. Who’s to say that federal government is better than the individual?”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
